Working Class Hero
by pepperlandgrl
Summary: She used to be normal. She used to be just a normal 12 year old girl from New York. That is until her dad decides it is a good idea to move to some small town in New Jersey called Glass Shard Beach. Why? She asked herself. Why did she have to become friends with Stanley and Stanford Pines? If she hadn't maybe, just maybe, she might have stayed normal. *Originally on AO3
1. Upside Down

**Hi! This my first Gravity Falls story up on Fanfiction. This was originally up on Archive of Our Own and still is but I felt like I could have written it so much better so I'm re-writing it on here. Hope everyone who reads this enjoys it and please, please, please leave a review! I will continue to move the chapters from this story to here over from AO3 if I see people like it.**

 **And of course, I own nothing from the show Gravity Falls! I only own my OC. Though I do wish I could own something as amazing as GF.**

* * *

Big fluffy white clouds moved lazily across the sky as a bird flew over the blue-green ocean. The waves licked the hot golden sand as a pair of bright green eyes stared ahead. A small red radio sat above her and the soft sounds coming from it blended with the sound of the waves and the occasional caw of a seagull. She had never seen a beach like this one before. She was so used to the foggy and loud harbor. She smiled. This was something she could get used to seeing.

She really should get down. The blood would pretty soon start rushing to her head and she would faint again. Like the last time at that playground in Central Park. But the world looked so different upside down. You got a whole new perspective of it. To her, the sky was gold and full of seashells. The ground was a vast blue blanket and was cut off by another light blue one covered in balls of cotton.

Pushing herself forwards, she swung her body slightly and watched as the world moved back and forth.

She gasped and stopped swinging when her emerald eyes met with a pair of brown ones. The girl fell of the red swing set bar and landed with a 'oof ' onto the sand.

"What were you doin' hangin' from the swings upside down?" The boy asked. She looked up at him and jumped slightly when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and her eyes met with another pair of brown eyes, the same as the other boy only these eyes were behind glasses.

"Do you need help getting up?" The boy wearing the glasses asked her.

She shook her head and stood up, dusting herself off, getting rid of the sand now on her shorts.

"Why were you hanging upside down?" The first boy repeated.

"I like hanging upside down." She answered. She finally got a good look at the almost identical boys.

They were twins, she realized. The only difference were their clothes. The one with glasses wore a black jacket and white shirt and the other one wore a red and white striped shirt. He had a band-aid on his left cheek and was missing a tooth but other than that, they were identical.

"Why?" The first boy asked looking confused.

"Because I like looking at things that way." She said with a huff.

"You're that new girl right? I've never seen you at school before." The boy with the glasses said.

The girl nodded. "Yep. Just moved here. I'm from New York."

The twins looked at her in surprise and awe.

"Whoa! New York! That's so cool." The boy with the band-aid said with a grin.

She grinned at them. "My name's Catherine. Catherine Baez."

The one with the band-aid stepped forwards and with a grin introduced themselves.

"Well, I'm Stanley and he's Stanford." he said, jerking a thumb towards his brother who had his hands in his pockets and a small smile on his face.

She heard a voice yell out her name from behind them and she turned.

"Ya voy, Papá!" Catherine answered back. She turned back to the two boys.

"You speak Spanish?" Stanford asked and she blushed. Speaking that language wasn't something to be so proud of. Catherine looked at the ground.

"Uh, yeah. I'm Hispanic." she said, remembering what her parents had told her.

Stanley looked confused for a minute and asked, "What's that?"

"It's someone who was born in the U.S. but has parents from mexico." Ford said to him. Catherine continued to look at the ground. She had hoped she didn't have to share this part of herself to the two people she had just met. A pair of hands were shown to her while her head was still down and she looked at them, her eyes widening after noticing the number of fingers. There were six on each hand.

"Ford, what the heck?" Stanley yelled but Ford had on a determined look on his face.

"I was born with my hands like this. I don't like showing people my hands because of it but I think you can be an exception." he said. He sounded confident but he was really nervous. Catherine looked at his hands and then at him and then grinned.

"That's so cool." she said to him and he smiled. Stan looked at them and then shared their same smile.

"We should invite her on our mystery hunts." Stan said to his brother.

"Yeah, we should." Ford said and they heard the same voice from before call out Catherine's name.

"Sorry, I gotta go." she said to them. "Can I meet you here again tomorrow?"

"Sure!" Stanley said to her and after they said their good-byes, Catherine grabbed her small red radio and raced over to her father.

* * *

"So, you made some new friends?" Catherine's dad asked her as he drove them back to their new house to finish unpacking.

"Yep!" Catherine said, cheerfully. "They're twins! Stanley and Stanford Pines!"

"That's great, sweetheart." he responded.

"Hey, papá?" she asked and he glanced over to her.

"Yes?"

"Can we go to the post office later? I need to drop something off." she said and her father sighed.

"Is it another letter for you mother?" he asked but he already knew the answer.

"Yeah. I wanna try again." she said. "Maybe this time she'll write back."

Her father parked the car into thee drive way and turned off the engine. He turned to her, a sympathetic look on his face. He looked conflicted, as if wanting to tell her something difficult but he said something else.

"Uh, sure." he said and she smiled at him. "We can drop it off on our way to school, how's that?"

"Yeah!" she said, her eyes shinning.

Her dad looked away for a moment and then turned back and faked a smile, but Catherine didn't notice. "Come on. Let's go finish up unpacking. If we finish fast enough, we start painting your room."

"Yay!" Catherine cheered and she hopped out of the car. Her father followed after her, now dreading the phone conversation he needed to have again with his ex-wife.

* * *

"Whoa! This is soooooo awesome!" She said excitedly as Catherine admired the big boat in front of her. It was missing the mast and parts of the sides were falling off but it was the first boat that she had seen up close so it was pretty cool. "You guys built this?"

"Well no. We found it in a old cave. But we dragged it out so we could fix it up." Stanley said, looking extremely proud. "We call it the 'Stan o' War'."

She snorted and covered her mouth to keep from laughing.

"What's so funny?" Stanley asked.

"Nothing! Nothing." She put her hand on the side of the boat and felt the smooth and somewhat damp surface.

"Can I...can I get on it?"

"Sure!" Stanley said happily and lifted her up. She gave a small yelp in surprise and her cheeks turned a light pink.

"Wow, you're really light." Stanley commented as he climbed in after her and Ford right behind him.

"Me and Stan are planning to use this to sail away and solve all sorts of mysteries!"

"Cool." Catherine said as she looked around the ship. "Can I come with?"

"Sure. The more the merrier!" Stanford said with a grin and fixed his glasses.

"Yeah!" Stan said as he put an arm around their shoulders and grinned at them.

They stopped grinning when they heard laughter behind them. They turned and found a group of boys, snickering at them.

"Well, this is a surprise." The tallest boy said. "Never thought you two would actually get a girl to talk to you. Much less get her onto your stupid boat."

Stan growled. "Shut up Crampelter!""

"What are you gonna do, Pines?" the boy sneered back. "You gonna make me?"

Stanley stepped forwards but Ford held him back.

"Stan, don't, he isn't worth it." he muttered quietly. The boys laughed some more and when they turned around to leave, a rock hit the back of Crampelter's head. He stopped and turned back around, a glare on his face.

"Alright, which ones of you idiots did that?!" he yelled. Before either of the Pines twins could respond, Catherine stepped forwards and threw another rock.

"I did!" she yelled and the rock hit him right in the forehead. His head snapped back and he stumbled back. When he looked back at her, she lifted up a bigger rock and that convinced him to get the heck out of there.

Stan and Ford both grinned when they saw that the group ran off and they cheered. Catherine blushed but grinned with them.

"That was so awesome!" Stan cheered and the twins pulled her into a hug. "I think that settles it, don't you think Ford?"

"Settles what?" he asked his brother with a small chuckle.

"That we are now the mystery trio." Stan said which made Ford roll his eyes at the name but Catherine laughed.

"We are not going to be called the 'mystery trio', Stanley." Ford said.

"Come on! It sounds cool." Stan protested. "Besides it makes sense because we're gonna be hunting monsters and solving mysteries together!"

"I think it sounds cool." Catherine said and Stan gave Ford a satisfied grin.

"See! Two against one. You lose, point-dexter!" Stanley said which made Catherine laughed some more. She was really starting to like New Jersey.


	2. On Top of the World

**I do not own Gravity Falls or any of the characters. I only own my OC Catherine.**

* * *

Light glowed out of the make-shift tent in the Pines twins bedroom. Laughter came out of the tent and a flashlight moved around, waving the beam of light around. Catherine was staying over at the Pines twins' place after her father had allowed her to stay the night. It had been Stan and Ford's 12th birthday and their parents were having this sort of big thing called a 'Bar Mitzvah' or something. She didn't really know but she had been invited anyway even though she wasn't Jewish. The boys considered her a close enough friend to be allowed to come and after a lot of begging from both the twins and herself to their parents, here she was.

"Okay, your turn, Cath." Stanley said and passed the flashlight to her. She smiled and grabbed it. Ford fixed his glasses and he leaned back.

"But make this a good one." he glanced at his brother. "Stan's almost made me fall asleep."

"Hey!" he yelled and glared at his twin making them both laugh.

"Alright, let's see..." Catherine thought about what story she would tell and grinned when she thought of one. "Okay, I got one."

She pulled the flashlight under chin and began her story. As she talked, the twins got closer and closer, both immersed in the story.

"...And then after the phone had rang for the fourth time, he picked answered it..." Catherine said and Stan laughed.

"Oh, man he is so going to die." he said as he nudged Ford, who shushed him.

"He answered it and all he heard was a soft breathing. He slowly put the phone down and as he turned around..." Catherine grinned. "That's when the killer _jumped out at him and stabbed him!_ " she yelled which made the twins jump and fall back, surprised by the different voice volume. Catherine laughed at their reacted, holding her stomach.

"Oh my god, you should have seen your faces." she laughed and they both sat up, glaring at her. They shared a glance and they both smiled, making Catherine's laughs die down.

"Uh, guys? What are you-!" she wasn't able to finish her sentence as the boys pounced on her, tickling her sides, their laughter filling the room.

* * *

"Come guys! You can ride those things faster than that!" Catherine yelled from her turquoise bicycle as she looked behind her at her two best friends. Her brown hair swished behind her as she gave a laugh, peddling faster.

"Where...does she...get all that...energy?!" Stanford asked his twin brother between breaths as they tried to catch up to her on their red and black bicycles. He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and wiped the sweat away from his forehead.

"I have no idea!" Stanley answered as he looked forward. A determined look crossed his face. "But I am not going to let some girl beat me at a race!"

Stan bent forward and peddled faster moving ahead of Ford.

With a sigh and roll of his eyes, he peddled faster as well.

Catherine glanced to her side and gave Stan a grin as she turned a corner. He felt his cheeks grow hot but shook his head and followed after her.

"Come on Stanley! You're making this boring! There's no competition!"

Her mouth shut closed after Stan came up beside her, winked at her and rode ahead of her with a cheer.

He crossed their drawn finish line and he raised his hands up in the air.

"Whoo hoo! Stanley Pines wins again!" He said getting off his bike and pumping a fist into the air.

"No fair! You distracted me." Catherine said, pouting as she got off her bike and crossed her arms.

"Yeah, I know. I tend to do that to girls." Stan said winking and giving her a flirtatious grin.

"You better not let Carla hear you talk like that." Catherine said smirking back when the grin fell from his mouth to a panicked look.

"You wouldn't!" He said.

"Oh, I would." She said as she gave him an innocent smile and took out her water bottle from her book bag.

Truth was, she would never tell Carla about something like that. She didn't really like her, and knew Carla didn't like her. She had tried to make friends with her but really, Carla figured out very quickly how she really felt about Stan so they weren't on the best of terms. After five years of her and him being friends, she had grown to care about him more than just a friend. He made her happy with just a glance or smile. He made her laugh without even trying and when he would touch her hand or hug her, her insides would explode into a warm, light feeling. She knew she was in love with him and as much as it hurt her to see him with Carla, she kept her mouth shut because if she made him happy, well then so was she.

Their attention shifted when Ford finally showed up, dragging his bike with him and falling to the ground.

"Let's never do that again." He mumbled, his face still on the ground. Catherine giggles as Stan goes over and lifts up his brother.

"I knew it was a bad idea to let you quit boxing."

"Yeah well...I had to focus on school. Do you know...how much time boxing practice takes up?" He said huffing, completely out of breath.

Catherine walks over to him and hands him her water bottle which earned her a grateful look from Ford.

"Thanks." He muttered and she smiled.

She grabbed two more from her book bag and tossed one to Stanley which he caught easily and opened one up for herself. She raised it to her lips but froze when she saw Stan drink from his.

'Don't stare. Don't stare. Don't stare.' She repeated over and over again in her head but failed as she watched him drink the water. Ford shoved an elbow into her side which took her out of her daze and she blushed. She gave a thankful look and he smirked, rolling his eyes behind his glasses.

He knew all about her crush on his brother. She had told him when they were in 7th grade. But even if she hadn't, it was easy to tell. The girl couldn't make it more obvious.

"Speaking of boxing practice, I gotta get going. I have practice in 15 minutes and I have to take Carla out later." Stan said closing his bottle of water and picking up his bike.

"What? But I thought we were gonna go back to my place and watch old horror movies." Catherine said, disappointed.

"Ford can hang out with you. Unless you want to come with me to practice?"

Catherine's mind erupted with images of Stanley boxing and began to feel her palms sweat and her knees turn to jelly. She gone with him before but never again. She had gotten two nosebleeds when she had gone. "Nah. It's alright." She turned to Stanford. "You still up for it?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah sure."

She grinned and clapped her hands together. "Yay!"

The twins chuckled at her enthusiasm. She still acted as if she was still 12.

"Well, I'll see you guys later then."

Stan got back on his bike, gave them a wave and rode away.

The other two got back on their bikes as well and Ford looked over to Catherine.

"Can we please go slow this time? I don't want to get a heart attack at only 17."

"Fine." Catherine said with an exaggerated sigh. Ford grinned at her and they rode off to her house.

* * *

"You really need to stop doing that. He's going to notice eventually." Ford said as he turned the screwdriver in his hand and tightened up one of the screws on his machine.

Catherine pulled her knees up to her chin as she sat on the living room couch, watching him work on his science project. "What are you talking about?"

They had gone back to his house after about three movies and he had started to work on his science project for the science fair that was still months away. Ford was did like to be over prepared.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." He said not looking up at her.

"No actually I don't." She responded.

He sighed and looked up. Ford pushed his glasses up and gave her a serious look.

"I'm talking about the whole 'staring' thing earlier."

She blushed and looked down at the floor. "Oh. That." She frowned and looked up at Ford. "Well it's not my fault that your brother's attractive."

Ford laughs and Catherine couldn't help but grin.

"Ok, ok. But really, I need help with this! I can't keep this up and you're right, he's going to find out eventually." Catherine said, putting her face into her hands.

Ford's laughter dies down and he gives her a sympathetic look. He reaches over and puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry. He won't find out. Stan isn't that quick to catch on. Just make sure you stop staring so much." He smirks. "I've seen you doing it during math."

She looks up at him, her cheeks red and she shoves him playfully.

"And you didn't tell me?!" She laughs.

"Well it was funny to see you stare at him the way you do. I could practically read your mind!" Ford puts his hands together and presses them to his cheek.

" 'Oh Stanley! You're soooooo handsome!' " he said in a high pitched voice, fluttering his eyelashes. He gives her a grin and she laughs as she throws a cushion at him.

"Ok! I get it!"

"I can still remember how in freshman year, the teacher hit you in the head with a ruler because you weren't paying attention. You were too busy doodling little hearts with Stan's name in them." He says bending over in laughter.

"Quit it!" Catherine yells at him but she laughs as well.

Their laughter was cut short when the front door opened and in walked Stanley. He was extremely quiet, his hair was messy and his shirt untucked.

"Hey Stan. You alright?" Ford asked from the floor.

He didn't answer as he hung up his jacket and stared at the floor.

"Stanley?" Catherine says quietly but loud enough for him to hear her.

He turns around and walks to his room.

"Stan, what happe-" Ford tried to ask but Stan cut him off.

He look at them and they saw that his eyes were red and puffy.

"I'm fine. Just...just leave me alone." His voice quivered towards the end and he runs into his room, slamming the door close.

Ford and Catherine looked at each other confused.

"What was that about?" She asks.

Ford shrugs. "I don't know."

Catherine glances up at the clock on the wall and gasps. "Shit! I have to get home! My dad is going to kill me!"

She got up off the couch and grabbed her jacket. "Try and talk to Stan. See what's wrong."

He nods and she gives him a hug. "See you tomorrow at school."

She leaves and walks to her bike outside, tied to a pole with a chain.

Hopping on, she rides off, her eyes trained on the road in front of her. Her mind though was still on Stanley.

Why was he like that? What happened? She frowned as she turned a corner. 'So help me if anyone hurt him...'

* * *

 **Well, there you go. To the people who are reading this, a new chapter! I added a new scene that I had in my head but I didn't add it in when I first wrote this story so I finally got the chance. Hope you all enjoy! Please, please, please review!**


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